The present invention relates to a merchandiser that includes a light source. More particularly, the present invention relates to a merchandiser including a light emitting diode (LED) light source to illuminate a product display area.
In conventional practice, commercial businesses such as supermarkets and convenience stores are equipped with refrigerated merchandisers. These merchandisers may be open or provided with doors and are used for presenting perishable food or beverages to customers while maintaining the fresh food or beverages in a refrigerated environment. Typically, the refrigerated merchandisers include a light source that illuminates the product display area for better marketing of the food product and for higher visibility to the customers.
Conventional refrigerated merchandisers typically include a fluorescent light source to illuminate the product display area. Some merchandisers include fluorescent light sources that are coupled to a mullion of the merchandiser to direct light generally toward the food product in the product display area. The effectiveness of fluorescent light sources is dependent on the temperature of the application where the fluorescent light sources are used. In colder temperature conditions, the fluorescent light source has less light output than in application of the fluorescent light source in warmer temperature conditions. As a result, fluorescent light sources that are coupled to the mullions can have substantially reduced effective illumination of food product within the product display area.
The fluorescent light sources used in conventional merchandisers are relatively large, and reduce the amount of space in the merchandiser that can be allocated to displaying food product. The generally close proximity of the relatively large mullion-mounted fluorescent light sources to shelves in the refrigerated merchandiser provides an imbalanced, uneven illumination of the product display area.
Other refrigerated merchandisers include light emitting diode (LED) light sources that are mounted to a mullion of the merchandiser to illuminate the product display area. The close proximity of the existing LED light sources to the shelves causes an uneven, imbalanced distribution of light into the product display area. The existing LED light sources only effectively illuminate a portion of the food product on the shelves, resulting in spotlighting some food product on the shelves and leaving other food product partially or substantially obscured due to the lack of uniform illumination of the entire product display area.